I know this was a long-time coming and it's not very long, but it felt like this is what needed to happen this chapter.

Chapter Three:

Booth was dead silent. There wasn't much to say in the first place. He didn't know what had stunned him into silence so badly. Brennan's reaction, to herself, was completely irrational.

"I didn't even let him in, Booth. I told him to take a walk as soon as he knocked on my door." she rushed out.

Booth pulled her closer and enveloped her in a warm embrace, not wanting her past to infringe on his current happiness. He had to ask the inevitable question.

"Did you feel anything for him, Bones?" he whispered into her hair.

Brennan nuzzled into his neck and let her emotions take precedence over her rationality. The first few tears trickled from her eyes as she started to speak.

"No, Booth, I didn't. The only thing I felt was irritated that he showed up thinking that I was just free and easy. I told him I had other engagements already made." she spoke softly.

"Very pleasurable engagements." he smirked. "If you didn't feel anything for him, then I have no reason to doubt you. I trust you more than I trust anyone, Bones. Something you don't have to worry about is my faith in you."

He wiped her stray tears away with his thumbs. He smiled at her that kooky charm smile of his. Brennan suddenly felt this fluttering in her stomach that refused to quit and her palms were sweating. She shook off the feelings and rose. If she didn't get going soon, she was going to be late for work.

* * *

Booth dropped Brennan off at the Jeffersonian, not wanting to go in and be greeted by the ever in-your-face inquiries of Miss Angela Montenegro. She said she understood, but was slightly irked at the thought of facing her friends interrogation alone.

He laughed, gave her a quick kiss, then drove to the Hoover building to clock in. He kind of wished that he could be a fly on the wall of Angela's inquisition.

Apparently, Cullen had a sense of humor this morning. Booth walked into his office to a half-foot tall stack of file folders, all containing some sort of paperwork, no doubt. He groaned and threw his suit jacket over the back of his chair.

"Booth."

The voice at the door was already identified to his ears even before he turned around. Booth decided to play along like he didn't know he was coming. He turned around.

"Sully? Wow, man, good to see you. How are things going?" Booth asked.

He smiled slightly, "Well, they could be better. I went to see Tempe last night."

It pulled at a string in Booth's heart to hear him call her 'Tempe'. "Stop thinking like that! She's not Tempe, she's Bones. Finally YOUR Bones." he thought. "Yeah, what'd she think?"

Sully sighed, "Not quite the reaction I was hoping for."

Booth smiled internally. "Yeah, what was that?"

"Possibly breaking my wrist." he fell into one of Booth's wingback chairs in front of his desk.

This time, the smile did reach his lips. That's my girl. "Really?"

"She said she was expecting company, and she was in this beautiful red…dress-like thing…" he rambled in misery.

Booth simply reminisced in happiness. He remembered that loose-fitting nightgown that she didn't even end up wearing for very long. He didn't let the ego show and simply nodded his head.

"Hey, do you know who this guy is that she's seeing, 'cause I thought she'd have a whole different way of handling me coming back." Sully looked at his long-time friend and comrade.

His eyebrows knitted, "What did you expect from her, Sul?"

Sully shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I just thought we could pick up where we left off. You still didn't answer my question."

Booth fought whether to tell him or not. He really wanted to say that Brennan was his girlfriend and they were happily together after three years of sexual tension. On the other hand, he also thought that she should be the one to tell her ex-boyfriend that she was with someone else. So all he said was, "I really don't think it's my place to tell you about my partner's social life."

"Hmm…alright, well I gotta go fill out reinstatement paperwork. I'll talk to you later." Sully exited his office. Booth got the feeling that the only reason that Sully came into his office was to milk him for information on Brennan's new flame.

'Time for a little field trip.' he thought, reclaiming his jacket and walking out of his office, saying 'screw it' to his paperwork.

* * *

Brennan looked around the corner. 'Good, no Angela just yet,' she thought as she skedaddled to the next safe hiding spot she had in her sights. She could see the security and privacy of her office not fifteen feet away. She made a brisk walk for it, thinking she was in the clear.

"Bren-nan!"

'Shit! So close!' Brennan turned to see Angela, in a word, barreling towards her best friend. She didn't even have reaction time as Angela yanked Brennan into her into her intended destination and pushed her onto the couch.

"Spill, honey. I want every single detail." she said in a very serious tone.

Brennan chuckled, "Well, after you left, I'd just gotten everything set up and changed, and I had an… unexpected visitor." she said lightly.

"What was so unexpected about Booth?" Angela asked.

Brennan shook her head, "Sully."

All she had to say was that one word to stun Angela into a dead silence with her jaw slacked. "Are you serious?"

"What would be the benefit of lying to you, Ange?" she asked inquisitively.

Angela shook her head, "Never mind it, Sweetie. So what happened?"

"I calmly told him that I was in a new relationship and that he can't just come back into my life and expect it to be exactly how he left it." Brennan said in her objective, rational voice.

"Which is completely true. Did you tell him it was Booth?" she asked.

"No, I didn't think that it was that it was relevant for him to know who I choose to keep company."

"It isn't any of his business, Sweetie, but don't you think that he might try to win you back if he thinks he has a chance at you?" Angela reasoned.

"What do you mean, Ange?"

Angela squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed at her closed lids. How to explain to Brennan the wondrous ways of jealous men? It was a question it was still too early in the morning for.

"Okay, Sweetie, It's basically how you say Booth has alpha-male tendencies?" she nodded, "Well, Sully is the same way. They both want you, and they both can't have you, so what happens between the two males?" she tried to explain it in terms that Brennan would understand.

"They…" The metaphorical hamster began running the wheels in Brennan's head, "They compete for the female's attentions."

"Yeah, only in this case, it's not going to be a physical fight." she continued.

"Then what is it if it's not physical?" Brennan asked.

"You'll see what I mean when the time comes."

* * *

Booth walked into the Jeffersonian and walked the path he'd memorized since Bones and his second case together. The Anthropology wing was without a doubt the shiniest and cleanest of any of the other labs he'd been to in the museum (and those were just a few). He walked around the giant obstruction in the middle of the lab they called the forensic platform and towards Brennan's office in the back.

He should've been alerted when he saw Angela and Brennan smiling and talking. He didn't doubt for a second that Angela stormed in and demanded details of the previous night, and was pretty sure that Brennan would give up the details fairly easily. Booth decided to just linger until his presence was noticed by Angela.

"Hey, James Bond," Angela said with a smirk.

"Hey, it's Booth… Seeley Booth." Booth replied while doing a few kung-fu moves. Brennan rolled her eyes at both of them and retreated to the sanity of the emails at her computer awaiting her reply.

"Bren, you and I are going out to lunch today, right?" Angela asked, barely hanging in the doorway.

"Yep, I'll talk to you then." Brennan said as her friend left. She turned to Booth. "So, what have you done in the half hour since I last saw you?" she asked.

He thought about his response for a second, "Can I greet my girlfriend properly first?"

She sighed, "If you must, you must."

Booth smiled, walked around her desk and kissed her squarely on the lips for a brief moment before pulling away. "Hi."

"Hi." she replied. "Now will you answer my question?"

"Your good old boy-toy came to see me this morning." Booth sat on the edge of her desk.

"What do you…oh," Brennan put two and two together herself, "What'd he say?"

He swung his legs in the air next to her, "He basically asked me who you were seeing and was miserable at the fact that you were all dressed up beautifully for someone else." his lips stretched in a half smile.

She blushed at his words, "Did you tell him?"

Booth shook his head, "No, I think he'd rather hear it from you."

"It's none of his business who I want to be with after he's been gone for a year, barely knows me anymore." Brennan mumbled as she flipped absent-mindedly through her inbox emails. One, however, stood out from the lot of them. "Oh, wonderful."

"What's wrong?" Booth leaned over to look more closely.

There it was, in all it's glory, an email from none other than Agent Timothy Sullivan. Brennan opened it to be greeted by dancing hearts and flowers that said 'Will you be my belated Valentine?' She clenched her teeth and deleted it rather quickly.

"Temperance," the hand under her chin brought her face and eyes back to her partner's.

She knew he meant something needed to be done about the situation, and she knew it too. It didn't make the process any less dreadful though. Brennan strongly believed that life leaves no room for second chances or regrets. She didn't regret letting Sully go or being with Booth or have Sully show up while she was waiting for Booth. That last one was an unfortunate accident, but she'd never regret her choice last night for even a nanosecond. Even with all these distinctions, the air was murky and needed to be cleared.

"I'll talk to him," her eyes never left Booth's

"That's my girl." he kissed her again.

Now, I know some of you think I'm writing Sully a little mean, and yeah whatever he was a nice guy. But if you actually THINK about it, Brennan had just let down her guard around him when he said he was gonna take off in his boat. Yeah, I know, it was her choice to stay for Booth, I just don't like him.

Please, please, PLEASE reviews are little drops of heaven to me and my fingers that write this.